Swiss-Belhotel eyes Australasia expansion with five NZ hotels in pipeline

Swiss-Belhotel International is expanding its operations in New Zealand with the signing of two hotel developments in Queenstown.

Come late 2020, the company will simultaneously launch the two Kiwi-based operations: Swiss-Belhotel & Residences Queenstown, and the younger, more value-conscious brand Zest Queenstown by Swiss-Belhotel.

A rendering of the Swiss-Belhotel & Residences Queenstown

Swiss-Belhotel International already operates 10 Zest properties in Indonesia and this will be the first Zest to open in New Zealand.

The new properties will increase the company’s Australasian offering […]

Meliá opens first Innside hotel in Vietnam

Spanish hotel company Meliá Hotels International has opened the Innside by Meliá Saigon Central in Ho Chi Minh City, the first hotel operated under the Innside brand in Vietnam.

The new hotel is the third brand to launch in Vietnam following Meliá Hotels & Resorts and Sol by Meliá, further consolidating the company’s plan to grow across the Asia Pacific region. The Innside by Meliá Saigon Central is the seventh property operating in the country, with an additional five hotels in […]

Bali will send low-cost airlines north to new airport

Budget flyers and premium passengers will arrive at airports at different ends of the island once Bali’s new northern airport opens in a few years’ time.

Construction is due to begin next year on Bali’s second international airport that will be built in the village of Kubutambahan, on the opposite end of the island to tourist favourites like Kuta, Nusa Dua and Seminyak.

“All the low-cost carriers in the north and the normal in the south,” Indonesian transport minister, Budi Karya Sumadi, […]

Wyndham continues growth in APAC

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the world’s largest hotel franchising company with approximately 9,200 hotels globally, has continued to expand its hotel network across the Asia Pacific Region with a series of important openings, brand launches and new market entries.

With an Asia Pacific system of more than 173,000 rooms and 86 openings this year, Wyndham is bringing world-class hospitality and innovative new brands to the area while driving net rooms growth in a key region of the world. All of the brands in […]

Sri Lanka tourism crisis may have bottomed out

Three months after the Easter Sunday suicide bombings, Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is starting to show signs of recovery, with flight bookings stabilising at 26 per cent down, a report has shown.

The report from ForwardKeys, which analyses over 17 million flight bookings a day, has shown that between January 1 and April 21, international flight bookings to Sri Lanka rose 3 per cent up from the year before.

But in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, there was a spike in cancellations and […]